When was the first "football"
match played in Hertfordshire? One of the
problems is that the accounts that survive from
the past often fail to mention the everyday
activities of the ordinary people and football
is no exception. The first description of what
might today be called a football match was
written by William FitzStephen in approximately
1170. While visiting London he noticed “after
dinner all the youths of the city goes out into
the field for the very popular game of ball.”
He also pointed out that every trade had their
own football team: “The fathers, and the men
of wealth come on horseback to view the contests
of their juniors, and in their fashion sport
with the young men; and there seem to be aroused
in these elders a stirring of natural heat by
viewing so much activity and by participation in
the joys of unrestrained youth.” Two
centuries later a monk wrote that football was a
game “in which young men ... propel a huge
ball not by throwing it into the air, but by
striking and rolling it along the ground, and
that not with their hands but with their feet.”
The monk claimed that the game was “undignified
and worthless” and resulted in “some
loss, accident or disadvantage to the players
themselves."

Early in the 14th century Edward II banned the
playing of football and several later monarchs
took similar actions and we can be pretty
certain that the game was played in
Hertfordshire, but there are no early direct
references to the game.

At theHALHSymposiumonSport
in HertfordshireDavid
Short described a different approach - which was
to try and track down old football fields by
looking at old field names. He noted that a
field in Ashwell listed in the tithe map was
called "Football Close" and was able to
trace the name to a terrier of 1628. Searching
other similar records revealed another "Football
Close" at Baldock mentioned in a 1568
deed. However another term, dating back to
Saxon times, may well indicate places where
games such of football could have been played.
The name "Plaistowe" could well comes
from the Saxon words for "battle place"
and it would seem could be used for what we
would now call a sports field. David found a "Plaistowe"
in Hertford dating back to 1461, Another at
Yardley dating back to 1630 and one is listed in
Norton's Survey of Barley which dates to around
1600. In listening to the talk I got the
impression that most were or the order of two
acres and close to the parish church.